Happy New Year of 2026! - New Year surprises [part#1]

     To every occasional and regular guest of my postcard's blog - Happy New Year 2026! Let next year be nicer to us, I wish to everyone - luck, love, happiness, health, and time and energy for writing postcards! As Boris @travelbat pointed out in previous post's comments, I haven't been writing for a while, so I hope to allocate some time during long holidays [this year it's almost two weeks at the expense of May holidays - from December, 31st till January 11th]. To illustrate this post - two weird Ded Moroz [=Father Frost] cards from Lera, @mondschein. Left one was sent in 2017, my eyes are watering when I see dates on the cancellation stamps - sent on December, 19th and received on December, 21st [compared to months and months nowadays...]. It's an illustration of Vladimir Kamaev, design by Aleksandr Utkin, printed by 'Kontakt-kultura' publishing house. Text says: 'Happy New Year, dear children! Sorry, I can't come. There is no more money left. We have a financial crisis in Lapland. I have to resort to eat wildfowl and dried mushrooms. See you! Your Father Frost. P.S. Sorry for quality of photo, my granddaughter took a photo on phone camera'.

both received from mondschein, Russia (direct swap)

     Second one is same illustrator, designer and set, same dates on cancellations. Text says: 'Happy New Year, dear children! Financial crisis is over! Enough money now. I'm writing you from Cote d'Azur, it's warm here. Food is all truffles and seafood pasta. So everything goes well for me, and I wish you the same. Your Father Frost. P.S. My granddaughter took a photo on Leica camera'.

Maxicard: New year stamps

     Quick New Year themed post - featuring three New Year cancellations on maxicards from silent-gluk. First one has stamp of 2016, cancelled on December, 1st. Second one is of 2015, cancelled on December, 10th, but seems it was bought in 2016 because backside has another type of cancellation of December, 14th -- which is odd, but I think sender was going to main post office on occasion and deltiologists are selling prepared maxicards there [they print cards themselves if there is no official maxicard for the stamp issued], which one can send within couple weeks from main post office without paying extra. On last card non-traditionally New Year themed but fitting the horses 'troika' stamp of 2014 [and next year of the horse, even though it starts later in 2026 on my birthday], cancelled on December, 12 - 'Grazing Horses IV (The Red Horses)' by Franz Marc.

all received from silent_gluk, Russia (direct swap)

Only in four postcards: Say goodbye to PostNord, Denmark!

      I planned this post after I saw announcement on official forum that [here and after I quote from original post by VilhelmR on forum, seeing post doesn't require forum login]: "At the turn of the year 2025, PostNord (in Denmark) delivers its last letter". With such news I prepared a draft for post with couple of last postcards from Denmark, which I haven't shown before - there were not many and since it always was fairly rare country with very high price of postage, it was exceptional to get any -- means usually post followed. All through this year there was lots of swaps organized to received Danish cards, some German postcrossers even travelled there to do so.

same card, received from sakurasan, Denmark (direct swap); left is scan from old scanner from work, and right one is from my current home scanner made during utilization queue [if you ever wonder how different cards can look on screen/digital copy and in reality]

     Sunset over sea photo by Robert Trojaborg Andersen is a card from 2015 swap [travelled - yes, with slow post, I'm obsessed now with looking at delivery dates - from March, 12 to March, 26], message on the back written in Dutch, and it has interesting 'B Economique' sticker instead of Air Mail on the back. Second card shows how Copenhagen looked in the 1930s, now there is no trams anymore, stamps were very interesting and again the economy sticker [card was sent on February, 09 - received March, 05, 2015]. And the last but not the least - one of friends' travels - sent on August, 08 - received on August, 29, 2019 [ah, pre-covid post travel times!] - funny rant on the back about postal expenses on holiday, almost 4 euro for a tiny stamp [considering 12.5 krones of 2015 cards 30 krones on 2019's card is quite a raise].

left - received from Kurba, Denmark (direct swap); right - received from Shaula, on travel in Denmark (direct swap)

stamps and sticker of postcard, received from Kurba, Denmark (direct swap)

     The more exciting to see now, when finding the original post on the forum, - moderator announcement that "The mail delivery in Denmark doesn’t stop at December 31, 2025. The private company Dao will take over at January 1, 2026".